Cytonome adopted Empower in order to create a cohesive product development environment to share data among engineering, manufacturing and purchasing via an automated process and prepare for their first International Organization for Standardization (ISO) audit.

Cytonome has an innovative focus to developing new products, where engineering develops concepts in parallel with manufacturing during the prototype phase. More efficient communication between these departments was the drive to adopt a PLM system. The company was managing product development with tools that did not communicate with each other. Information had to be manually entered into separate systems which took up valuable employee time, introduced costly human data entry errors and resulted in systems containing incorrect or out-of-date information.

With Omnify Empower, Cytonome was able to create an efficient and compliant product development environment by establishing automated processes for data transfer with their SolidWorks and Expandable ERP systems, New Part Request (NPR) and Engineering Change Order (ECO) signoff workflows, and Quality management such as Non-Conforming Material Reports (NCMRs), Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPAs), process deviations and customer service repairs. Cytonome also manages and tracks employee training documentation, calibration processes and calibration records.

“Our overall product development processes are faster and more efficient due to the time savings and improved data accuracy we have realized by implementing Omnify Empower as our central product information management system,” stated Heather Kiessling, Chief Financial Officer for Cytonome. “The most significant business benefit of using Omnify Empower is the real time global updates among engineering, purchasing and manufacturing that we did not have before.”

During their first ISO audit the auditor gave accolades to Cytonome’s tracking and management of calibration records, training on quality documents, and procedures associated to groups. “The success of our preparation for our first ISO audit as demonstrated by having the first two days with no findings is a direct result of having (and using) Omnify Software,” commented Miss Kiessling.

“Today’s manufacturers can no longer rely on Excel spreadsheets and manual processes to manage their product development information, particularly with the growing compliance mandates they are faced with,” stated Chuck Cimalore, Chief Technology Officer, for Omnify Software. “Customers like Cytonome who are committed to manufacturing their products under the highest quality control guidelines adopt Empower to gain a centralized product record for better visibility and control of information across their organization and to help simplify the process of meeting their demanding compliance requirements.”